LAGOS, March 26, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Nigerian Muslim leaders will organize in April an international conference on "positive religiosity" to tackle recent communal tensions in the African country and address challenges in states where Muslims are a minority.

"The conference is primarily aimed at easing soaring tensions between Muslims and Christians in the predominantly Christian East," Mostafa Wakama, Secretary General of the Dialogue Forum of Muslims in East/West Nigeria which organizes the event, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, March 26.

The conference, to be hosted by the eastern city of Port Harcourt, will be attended by a host of Muslim leaders, prominent politicians, state governors and intellectuals.

It comes after bloody tit-for-tat attacks between Nigerian Muslims and Christians triggered by the Danish cartoons that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

At least 80 people, mainly Muslims, were killed by Christian mobs in the southeastern Nigerian city of Onitsha on February 23 days after Muslims killed some 15 Christians, set fire to churches, shops, houses and cars in the northern state of Borno.

Nigerian Muslim leaders have strongly condemned the attacks on churches and local Christians.

The conference will explore pragmatic solutions to head off a future Muslim-Christian standoff.

"Communal challenges have become the main obstacle to Muslim-Christian co-existence," said Wakama.

"It is time to streamline Muslim-Christian relationship in this country and reconsider the concept of positive religiosity."

He said religion is a sensitive issue in Nigerian society, which necessitates initiatives to bridge the gap between Muslims and Christians.

A recent census shows that Muslims make up 55 percent of the country’s 133 million, Christians 40 percent and five percent atheists.

However, other estimates indicated that Muslims make up some 65 percent of the country.